Worker critically injured in accident on second Vortex ride at NC State Fair

Fairgrounds police secure a barricade around one of two rides called the Vortex after an accident closed the ride Thursday the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.Robert Willett / News & Observer via AP

Four days after five people were injured on a ride called the Vortex at the North Carolina State Fair, a worker there was critically injured early Monday when part of the festival's other ride called the Vortex fell on him, authorities said.

Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, of Quitman, Ga., was ordered held on bond Monday in Wake County, N.C., District Court on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious bodily injury.Wake County Sheriff's Office

The annual fair closed Sunday, and as workers were dismantling the older of the Vortex rides, the ride's seating section fell about 3:30 a.m. ET Monday, trapping the man and pinning the lower half of his body, a spokesman for the fair told WRAL-TV of Raleigh, which first reported the accident.

The man was listed in critical condition in intensive care Monday night at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.

The Vortex that fell Monday morning has been part of the fair's main midway for several years. It isn't the same Vortex that jolted into motion Thursday night as riders were exiting, dropping them from heights of up to 30 feet. Five people were injured, three of whom remained in the hospital Monday, including a 14-year-old child.

The ride's operator, Timothy Dwayne Tutterrow, 46, of Quitman, Ga., was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Investigators said the ride had been tampered with to bypass critical safety devices.

Tutterrow made his first court appearance Monday in Wake County District Court in Raleigh and was held on $225,000 bond.

Tutterrow was "devastated" by the incident, his attorney, Roger Smith Jr., said Monday.

"Tim Tutterrow's a good man, and he would never intentionally harm anybody," Smith told WNCN.

The ride was the only one at the fair operated by Family Attractions Amusement Co. of Valdosta, Ga. There was no answer at the company's phone number, and its website appeared to have been taken down in the last few days.

But in a statement to WNCN, Joyce Fitzpatrick, a spokeswoman, said the company "has an excellent equipment safety record and has never before experienced an incident with any of its rides like this one."

Records on file with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which catalogs amusement park safety incidents, show no investigations or enforcement actions against the company, which was founded in 1996.

State regulators confirmed that the Vortex was inspected multiple times a day, and Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the ride appeared to have been tampered with after its last inspection Thursday "to keep that ride operating."